Staceon
06/29/2000, 12:21 PM
Wonder pill lets women conceive at sixty
FROM MICHAEL HANLON
IN BOLOGNA, ITALY
A PILL that could delay the onset of the menopause by more than 10 years is being developed by scientists.
The move raises the prospect of women routinely giving birth in their late 50s and 60s.
By disrupting the natural hormone cycle, the pill would not only protect against unwanted pregnancy but also lead to a later menopause, Dr Egbert te Velde, of the University Medical Centre in Utrecht, Holland, said yesterday.
Women taking the pill would have a longer time in which to conceive and the post-menopausal ageing process would be slowed down. The prospect was welcomed last night by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.
"This is quite a contentious subject but if it means that women on a second marriage can have a child with a new partner, then it is quite hard to criticise," a spokeswoman said. But anti-abortion campaigners accused scientists of "meddling with nature".
The pill, which is being developed by the drug company Organon in Holland, will work by slowing down the production of a hormone which triggers egg manufacture in the ovaries, Dr te Velde explained. When all the available cells in a woman's ovaries have been turned into eggs, the menstrual cycle stops and she enters the menopause.
The new pill would block the action of a hormone called FSH - Follicle Stimulating Hormone. Stopping FSH production should slow down this process, Dr te Velde said.
But one top gynaecologist, who did not wish to be named, said last night that controlling the date of the menopause could be very difficult because the rate at which ovary follicles are lost is at least partly genetically determined.
Girls lose thousands of follicles in their lives which never even get the chance to produce eggs and the expert said that simply slowing down the ripening of a follicle would not automatically lead to a delay in ageing.
Professor Jack Scarisbrick, chairman of the anti-abortion group Life, said: "Nature knows best. For women to be bringing up children in their 60s is not something that we should be taking on board.
"I have very grave suspicions of these claims and think doctors could be doing much better things like looking at the rising amount of male and female infertility. A child has a right to have happy and competent parents. Children are not commodities to be bought. We have got our values wrong."
Dr te Velde presented research results at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Bologna yesterday which show that current contraceptive pills seem to have no effect in delaying the menopause. Scientific wisdom says that by pumping the female body with hormones in an effort to fool it that it is already pregnant - which is how the contraceptive pill works - should also halt the ageing process of the menopause.
But Dr te Velde's team found that in fact there was little or no effect on the date of the onset of the menopause after taking the pill.
In women who have taken the highest dose "first generation" pills, the menopause in fact comes slightly early - around six months on average.
For women taking today's contraceptive pills there is no acceleration in the onset of the menopause.
"This was not what we expected," he said. "The most optimistic estimates were that taking the pill should delay the menopause by two to three years. This is not what we found.
"We have no explanation for this result - although the influence of Hormone Replacement Therapy cannot be excluded."
Scientists will now need to adjust the hormone balance in contraceptive pills if the desired effect of delaying the menopause is to be achieved.
Organon spokeswoman Ellen Havemarr confirmed yesterday that the company was working on such a dual-purpose pill.
"We are working on this type of thing, yes," she said. She added that the work was being carried out by Dr Coleng Bennenk, director of reproductive medicine.
But the Dutch researchers stress that a pill which delays the menopause
FROM MICHAEL HANLON
IN BOLOGNA, ITALY
A PILL that could delay the onset of the menopause by more than 10 years is being developed by scientists.
The move raises the prospect of women routinely giving birth in their late 50s and 60s.
By disrupting the natural hormone cycle, the pill would not only protect against unwanted pregnancy but also lead to a later menopause, Dr Egbert te Velde, of the University Medical Centre in Utrecht, Holland, said yesterday.
Women taking the pill would have a longer time in which to conceive and the post-menopausal ageing process would be slowed down. The prospect was welcomed last night by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.
"This is quite a contentious subject but if it means that women on a second marriage can have a child with a new partner, then it is quite hard to criticise," a spokeswoman said. But anti-abortion campaigners accused scientists of "meddling with nature".
The pill, which is being developed by the drug company Organon in Holland, will work by slowing down the production of a hormone which triggers egg manufacture in the ovaries, Dr te Velde explained. When all the available cells in a woman's ovaries have been turned into eggs, the menstrual cycle stops and she enters the menopause.
The new pill would block the action of a hormone called FSH - Follicle Stimulating Hormone. Stopping FSH production should slow down this process, Dr te Velde said.
But one top gynaecologist, who did not wish to be named, said last night that controlling the date of the menopause could be very difficult because the rate at which ovary follicles are lost is at least partly genetically determined.
Girls lose thousands of follicles in their lives which never even get the chance to produce eggs and the expert said that simply slowing down the ripening of a follicle would not automatically lead to a delay in ageing.
Professor Jack Scarisbrick, chairman of the anti-abortion group Life, said: "Nature knows best. For women to be bringing up children in their 60s is not something that we should be taking on board.
"I have very grave suspicions of these claims and think doctors could be doing much better things like looking at the rising amount of male and female infertility. A child has a right to have happy and competent parents. Children are not commodities to be bought. We have got our values wrong."
Dr te Velde presented research results at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Bologna yesterday which show that current contraceptive pills seem to have no effect in delaying the menopause. Scientific wisdom says that by pumping the female body with hormones in an effort to fool it that it is already pregnant - which is how the contraceptive pill works - should also halt the ageing process of the menopause.
But Dr te Velde's team found that in fact there was little or no effect on the date of the onset of the menopause after taking the pill.
In women who have taken the highest dose "first generation" pills, the menopause in fact comes slightly early - around six months on average.
For women taking today's contraceptive pills there is no acceleration in the onset of the menopause.
"This was not what we expected," he said. "The most optimistic estimates were that taking the pill should delay the menopause by two to three years. This is not what we found.
"We have no explanation for this result - although the influence of Hormone Replacement Therapy cannot be excluded."
Scientists will now need to adjust the hormone balance in contraceptive pills if the desired effect of delaying the menopause is to be achieved.
Organon spokeswoman Ellen Havemarr confirmed yesterday that the company was working on such a dual-purpose pill.
"We are working on this type of thing, yes," she said. She added that the work was being carried out by Dr Coleng Bennenk, director of reproductive medicine.
But the Dutch researchers stress that a pill which delays the menopause